How bad is this? Using a snorkel during a triathlon? First let me say that I am no great swimmer, well actually I am no triathlete either. I’m a cyclist that would like to do a local triathlon this spring. I’ve been swimming this winter but I just can’t seem to become fluid with my breathing. I can start out doing the normal freestyle with my face in the water and breathing to my right. However after about 2 lengths of the pool when my heart rate and breathing increase I can’t keep my face in the water. Actually I kind of freakout. I keep trying to will myself into maintaining the proper technic but I just can’t seem to do it. I know how to swim and breath but fear starts to set in. So I started thinking about a snorkel and I see that they are legal in races. I also understand that they don’t really provide an advantage for the normal swimmer who can swim and breath normally but for someone like me it could really help. So if I show up at the local triathlon with a snorkel am I going to be laughed out of the pool?
If it is allowed, then I just say, who cares what other people think. If you need something to get through a race, and it’s allowed, go for it.
I would like to say this, however. Swimming is hard, period, especially if you didn’t learn it from a young age. The problems you are experiencing, are the problems faced by every single person that takes up triathlon and swimming from a non-swimming background. I, too, frustrated with not being able to breath, have wanted to use a snorkel. But it seems to me that you are probably going to want to do more and more triathlons, and you’ll probably want to get better at them, and that means someday you are probably going to want to get rid of the snorkel. You don’t want the snorkel, or anything else, to become a crutch. If you’ve got some time, I suggest you spend it getting comfortable in the water. Swimming is not always about the yards to get into shape, and if you are already an athlete (cyclist) then you probably have the aerobic endurance necessary to complete the swim, you just need the technique. I would recommend these drills that are great for learning how to balance yourself in the water, and letting it support you. They start on your back, so you don’t even have to worry about turning to breathe. I know they probably sound easy, but it took me at least a week to get past the first one or two, and I already had an Ironman swim under my belt.
www.totalimmersion.net.au/drills.asp
Getting comfortable breathing is the hardest thing to master, and the most important thing for completing the distance. Good luck, and remember, from what you said, you sound like every other person I have ever talked to (including myself) that tried to take up swimming. I can think of nothing more frustrating that watching all of these seemingly out of shape old/young people kicking the crap out of me every time I get in the pool. It’s an amazing activity.
So much of what we do in this sport is fashion driven, eh? I say do whatever works and whatever it takes for you to be comfortable. Hell with whatever anyone else thinks. If a snorkel helps you develop the level of comfort you need so that you can participate in the sport, and feel safer and more comfortable in the water then all the more power to you. You also may want to check out a book called “Open Water Swimming” which has some good sections on how to acclimate to the water and reduce fear. The breathing will certainly come, just be patient…and good luck!
I would second the recommendation of the total immersion drills. I have been swimming since I was 2 but still found them some of the most effective training tools I have used in any sport. I would recommend going a step further and buying the book/video combo “triathlon swimming made easy”, and order the ‘fist-gloves’ at the same time. The gloves are recommended in the book and they seem to really make a difference. The biggest help with your breathing will be the ability to stay relaxed and swim fast at the same time.
I’m learning to swim too. I asked about breathing at TNO, here’s the thread if you’re interested.
http://www.trinewbies.com/phorum/thread-view.asp?threadid=2709
Best of luck, it gets better!
Thanks for the replies. I have actually bought and use the TI book and it has helped my form. When I do my first two lenghts I feel that I’m actually doing the TI method. It is just the mental thing about breathing that get me everytime. I figured that if I used the snorkel I could keep my TI form the whole way through the race. Actually I got the idea when I read on a website where the recommended using a snorkel while working on your form.
Again thanks for the replies
I was always deathly afraid up putting my face in water. Learned through Total Immersion a year ago last week. Used a snorkel in the center of my face every now and then in the first three months to get technique and strength to a point that I could pull myself through the water, so I could finally work on breathing in the water. I have no problems now. I doubt rules will allow in a event. But use it in practice to develop strength and technique. I would always get laughs at the pool but it made me faster, so who cares? A great training tool for some. Make sure it is the center one though.
Matt
You have to start small and work your way up. Breathing is a huge thing in swimming, but you shouldn’t focus all your mind into it. Breathing comes along with your stroke technique and body positioning in the water. If your technique is wrong, your breathing is probably wrong to. So since breathing is your problem, I highly suggest you(and anyone else out there who wants to improve their stroke technique) is to try the swimmers snorkle. http://finis-net.com/l4-acc-snork.html
I’ve got one and I use it during drills, pulling, or using my monofin in a long course(50 m) pool. It’s wierd at first but it helps you keep a correct body position since you basically don’t have to breathe. =)
The homepage for the company is monofin.com. I also suggest you guys check out their monofins as well. They’re lots of fun and are going to be an Olympic sport in 2004. All the Euro’s are going crazy over these things. =)
Many new swimmers just try to go too fast and make their breathing fit the level of exertion. It needs to be the other way around. swim slowly and fit the level of exertion to your breathing capacity. Otherwise you will go anerobic and “freak out”.
I didn’t think that snorkels were allowed in races. Anyone know for sure?
That said. I recommend learning how to breathe properly and get accustomed to racing in the open water. When you get in your first race and keep your head submerged the whole time with a snorkel on who knows where you’ll end up.
Okay so what happens if you train with your snorkel on the assumption that you’re going to use it to get you through the race. Then on race day, you’ve got rough water conditions, or you find yourself in the middle of a big pack of swimmers getting yourself all whacked around, and you lose the snorkel in the process?
So what happens to your race then? Do you abandon the course? Ask for a ride back to the beach from one of the support boats? Or can you make it through the rest of the swim without it?
You can’t go into a swim race with the asumption that cap, goggles, and breathing aid are going to remain on your body for the whole race. I’ve had to DNF an open water race after a big wave washed my goggles off and out to sea. (I’ve got expensive contacts on underneath the goggles in order to get me up to 20/40, glasses/prescription goggles don’t work well for me, and backstroke wasn’t getting me anywhere)
Really the best thing you can do is to keep plugging along with the TI drills and work on getting more comfortable in the water. Right now, it sounds like the problem is more mental than physical. Just keep working on gradually increasing the number of lengths you do before stopping for a rest, and you will make it through just fine.
I remember reading that they were allowed if you have a specific injury (such as a neck injury) that means you need one. But it may be up to the discretion of a RD
I would not allow it in a race where I was the head referee,as it would in my opinion, create an unfair advantage over those that don’t have one and therefore have to deal with the chop from other swimmers or waves while breathing.
i agree with the people on here that say that you shouldnt worry what other people think, but make no mistake, you will get at least 50 stares and maybe hear some quiet laughter. And i cant see how’d they be legal anyways—it’d be almost like paddles or flippers.
Hard to imagine it could be legal.
I have one of these:
http://www.bodytrends.com/finsno.htm
You can find them for a lot less if you look around.
I’ve used it to do some of the TI drills. Like others who’ve come to swimming late in life, I find it really frustrating. The snorkel lets me focus on doing some of the drills, like shark fin, etc…, without having to interrupy it every few seconds with my, as yet, undeveloped breathing technique.
I used to do this in a backyard pool, by MYSELF. I’m trying to work up the courage to go to the pool and use it there while wearing a neoprene vest and shorts. I am a total WUSS about the cold as well as a lousy swimmer :p.
I keep psyching myself to do it since I have a pool not more than 5 min walking distance from work and I can go every day at lunch.
Have fun.
So what you are saying is that your technique is sound at the beginning of a swim but at the onset of fatigue you feel that you are unable to get enough air, thus your once perfect form becomes disrupted. It sounds to me like two related problems. The first is that your sound technique only has one speed, fast. This is something I do whenever working on techniqe. I focus so hard on looking perfect that I don’t realize that such “perfection” means going anerobic. My reaction was to gasp for air, but in my gasping I would forget to exhale. I would eventually hypervetillate and pass out. The second is that your reaction to the anxiety that comes from not getting enough air is too severe.
Try slowing down, and really try to controll your breath. Remember your mouth does not need to be out of the water to exhale. If you are not already involved with Yoga get into it. Practicing yoga out of the pool with teach you to control your breath while staying relaxed, furthermore it will give you tools to deal with the stress and axiety of racing, in or out of the water. All in all a good thing.
Good Luck
I have a friend who has had 3 back operations. He is now swimming with a snorkel. This allows him to swim without pain. The rotation hurts him. Now he’s thinking about a triathlon. Not to race but as a goal to finish. You wouldn’t let him try? Unfair advantage?
You are just the type of race director we need!
Have to agree with FLA, if fear is a big factor, what is going to happen if you lose your snorkel in the middle of the swim? Being a pretty bad swimmer myself, I like the security of knowing I’ve done the race distance at least once in training without any aids.
Along with the other ideas mentioned, make going one more length (no snorkel) one of your swim goals. Set it up so that your final length will end up on the shallow end of the pool, that way if you start to freak, just put your feet down, catch your breath, and take off again.
Also, start at the deep end, and try and see how far you can swim (free style) without breathing. I have always thought that 3 strokes was the most I could do. I started not breathing on a couple of lengths to work my stroke and was amazed I could go half way across. Gave me a big mental boost.
From the head of all referees:Crarlie Crawford
the Competitive Rules does not
disallow snorkels.
so tell your friend to go ahead and use one if he wants
Eric
Again thanks for all the replies. I think I should clearify a few things.
-
First I checked the USTA rules and snorkels were permitted. I checked this last year. Not sure if there is a clause that states that the local ref can disqualify equipment.
-
My speed is slow and I’m not going anaerobic. The breathing is a mental thing. It happens before I get anaerobic and I know when I’m anaerobic from my cycling experience.
-
The race I want to do has the swim in a pool. I don’t have plans of doing other races since cycling is the thing I really do. This is just a local race that I would like to do for fun. My wife does tri’s and I would like to do this local one with her and my sister in law. (Ok I think I can beat them because my cycling and running is better then their’s but my swimming…well you know)